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Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who I, Davros The Audio Dramas

Guilt

I, Davros: GuiltAs always, war rages on, ravaging the surface and the people of Skaro. The emphasis turns to espionage as a technological stalemate takes hold; so long as neither the Kaleds nor the Thals gain a decisive technological advantage, the war remains on a knife’s-edge detente that leaves the combatants with surgical strikes via conventional weapons. Davros is naturally working on new technology, but to the Kaled Supremo’s distaste, Davros is focusing solely on genetic engineering instead of devastating new weapons. Obsessed with the future of the Kaled race in the increasingly toxic and radioactive atmosphere, Davros – despite his debilitating injuries and being restricted to a mobile (but still very limited) life support base – is working toward providing a tank-like travel shell that will protect what he predicts the Kaleds will become, as well as allowing its occupant to defend itself. But the Thals are keenly aware that the best chance the Kaleds have of gaining an advantage in the war is Davros, and a commando unit raids the Kaled science dome to kidnap him. Separated from his life support chair, Davros is dying, but refuses to surrender any information, except the truth that he is not developing new weapons at this time. A Kaled strike team, led by the ambitious young Lt. Nyder, rescues Davros and brings him back to the Kaled capitol. Once recovered from his ordeal, Davros is finally ready to complete his rise to power…and all his people have to do is surrender their future to his great plans.

Order this CDwritten by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), Lizzie Hopley (Yarvell), John Stahl (The Supremo), Peter Miles (Lt. Nyder), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Richard Grieve (Major Brogan), Lisa Bowerman (Colonel Murash), Nicholas Briggs (Baran), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston), Jennifer Croxton (Tech-Ops Ludella)

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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Season 10 SG-1 Stargate

Unending

Stargate SG-1Gen. Landry and SG-1 travel on the Odyssey to the new Asgard homeworld, where Thor makes an announcement. The Asgard have been unable to reverse their physical deterioration, and they will all soon die. They have chosen to end their civilization in one stroke, but before they do, they want to pass their entire knowledge base and technology along to Earth, as a way of preserving their legacy. Earth is ready to take its role as the fifth race.

Before the proceedings can finish, Ori warships attack. The Odyssey‘s new weapons are able to destroy one ship as the Asgard homeworld explodes. But every time the ship leaves hyperspace, the Ori are waiting for them. Landry and SG-1 decide to make a final stand and beam the crew to a nearby planet in order to take the stargate home. Before the final shot can destroy the ship, Carter activates a time dilation field that, from their perspective, brings events outside the ship to almost a standstill. She figures that this will buy her time to find a way to save the Odyssey and the Asgard technology, or at least their lives.

The task proves more complicated than expected. Even though she develops a matter converter that keeps them all fed and supplied with oxygen, she can not find a way to ensure their survival. Decades pass. Mitchell begins at impatience and makes his way to stir-crazy. Daniel and Vala begin a relationship after a heated argument breaks down Landry passes away. Finally Carter reveals that she has figured out how to reverse the time field and disengage the Asgard technology that is broadcasting their position to the Ori – but they lack the power to implement it. Mitchell suggests that they harness the power of the Ori blast that has been moving slowly toward them for fifty years, and Carter believes it may work. But one member of SG-1 will have to remain old in order to tell the team what to do, or they will simply repeat their experience over and over again.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Robert C. Cooper
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Hyperdrive Season 2

Convoy

HyperdriveThe Camden Lock joins a convoy to escort a British-built space superweapon to a classified location. Henderson naturally takes the opportunity to flirt with the female commanders of the other two ships in the convoy, and with his attention on that matter, the Scrane’s sudden overwhelming attack to seize the weapon for themselves comes as a bit of a surprise. The Scrane are driven off, and a prisoner is taken who claims that there is a traitor among Henderson’s senior crew – an accusation that York finds evidence to back up in the wreckage of the Scrane ship. But who among Henderson’s crew would sell out Earth?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Kevin Cecil & Andy Riley
directed by John Henderson
music by Mark Thomas

HyperdriveCast: Nick Frost (Henderson), Kevin Eldon (York), Miranda Hart (Teal), Dan Antopolski (Jeffers), Stephen Evans (Vine), Petra Massey (Sandstrom), Wren Shepherd (Captain Helix), Paterson Joseph (Space Marshal), Clare Thomson (Commander Roche), Thalia Zucchi (Commander Gulati), Alisdair McKee (Scrane), Ewan Bailey (Voice Over), Maggie Service (Voice Over)

Notes: This is the final episode, to date, of Hyperdrive. Although Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley Hyperdrivedeveloped outlines for a third season, a third year of the show was never commissioned. Nick Frost has gone on to appear in, among other things, the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special (as Santa Claus, no less), while Miranda Hart moved on to greater fame in both Call The Midwife and her own self-titled sitcom (and has been mooted as a possible female Doctor Who every time the subject of selecting a new star for that show has come up since Hyperdrive’s conclusion). Kevin Eldon also moved on to a self-titled sitcom, and has more recently been the voice of Penfold in the revived Danger Mouse series and appeared as Camello in Game Of Thrones.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Daybreak – Part Two

Battlestar GalacticaCaprica City, before the fall: Saul and Ellen Tigh drink to Bill Adama’s impending career move, but during the intense interview – bordering on an interrogation – Adama decides he’d rather be back in uniform, fading into obscurity performing ceremonial duties aboard a museum piece of a battlestar that will never see action again…

Now: Instructed to stay with the fleet to provide medical care, Doc Cottle issues Roslin with enough drugs to keep her up and moving for the mission to save Hera. Surprisingly, Baltar finally joins the mission as well. Their orders are simple: Galactica will jump into the heart of the Cylon stronghold, and Sam will communicate with the colony’s hybrid, convincing it to bring the automatic defenses’ assault on Galactica to a halt. Adama rams Galactica right down the Cylons’ throats, causing massive damage to both vessels – and giving the combined Colonial/rebel Cylon forces a perfect entrance to the colony. But even when a remorseful Boomer hands Hera back over to her parents, the fight isn’t over: Brother Cavel and his forces raid Galactica, and just when it seems Hera is safe and sound, he grabs the child and threatens to kill her unless the secret of resurrection is restored to the Cylons. This requires a group-mind link among the final five, during which all will be revealed, something which makes Tory nervous. During the link, her murder of Cally is revealed to Tyrol, who breaks the link to exact revenge. Deciding that he’s been tricked, Cavel orders his forces to open fire again, and he himself dies in the ensuing bloodbath. A stray raptor, its pilot dying, accidentally fires nukes into the heart of the Cylon colony; with Hera safely aboard, Galactica jumps away from the imminent cataclysm, on a heading for nearly-random coordinates that Starbuck has derived from musical notes written down by Hera.

But it proves to be the ship’s last jump: returning to normal space is the straw that literally breaks Galactica’s back. The battlestar will never jump again. Galactica has arrived near a habitable planet, and summons the rest of the fleet to follow. On this planet, primitive humanoids – genetically combatible with Colonials and Cylons alike – are thriving. But rather than introduce technology and concepts – and trouble – to advance the natives, Lee has a better idea: the survivors of the fleet should abandon their technology and go native, learning to live off the land anew. The Cylon centurions are dispatched in their base ship to find freedom, though no one can say with any certainty that they won’t return to this planet and wipe out the rest of the Colonials. On the ground, the crew begin making plans for a new, simpler life…but will their progeny learn from their mistakes, or repeat them?

written by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Mark Sheppard (Romo Lampkin), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Kerry Norton (Nurse Ishay), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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New Series Prisoner, The

Checkmate

The Prisoner (2009 remake)6 is falling ill, and 313 confirms the grim diagnosis: something is slowly killing him. 147 tries to get him help, but 2 seems content to sit back and watch his adversary wither away as more new arrivals – who seem to have no idea that they came from outside the Village – roll in on a bus. But as 2 concentrates all of his time and energy on watching 6 die, his own family is wiped out, and the mysterious holes to nowhere continue opening in the ground. What happens to the Village when 2 doesn’t feel like being in charge anymore?

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12), David Butler (Shopkeeper / Access Man), Renate Stuurman (21-16), Hanle Johanna Barnard (23-90), Leila Henriques (Curtis’ PA), Wolfgang Weissenstein (Butler)

Notes: The new Prisoner episode titles hearken back to episodes of the original – in this case, Checkmate – even though there may not necessarily be a direct story correlation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 5

The Man Who Never Was – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresThe real power behind Serf has been revealed: the hologram of the long-dead computer tycoon is being generated by enslaved aliens, at the behest of Serf’s former business partner. Desperate to keep the truth from getting out, he locks up Sarah, Sky and Luke, and threatens the alien minions trapped in the bowels of the Serf Systems building. After receiving a message from Luke, Clyde and Rani go undercover to get into Serf’s building to rescue Sarah and the others. Sarah finds that others have been detained in order to keep Serf’s illusion a secret, and helps to free them as well. But can the plot be exposed before Serf’s hypnotic hologram persuades the public to buy a SerfBoard for every home?

Get the DVDwritten by Gareth Roberts
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam & Dan Watts

Sarah Jane AdventuresCast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Tommy Knight (Luke Smith), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra), Sinead Michael (Sky), James Dreyfus (Harrison), Mark Aiken (Serf), Edyta Budnik (Adriana), Peter Bowles (Lionel Carson), Dan Starkey (Plark), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Jason Mohammad (Newsreader)

Notes: The was the final episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures produced before production was halted due to Elisabeth Sladen’s health. She died on April 19th after a lengthy battle with cancer, and the three two-part stories already “in the can” for the fifth season were completed and aired in October of that year, Sarah Jane Adventureswrapping up the series. A special montage covering the entire series was added to the end of The Man Who Never Was. With no new season of Torchwood commissioned following Miracle Day, the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures also marks the end of Russell T. Davies’ involvement in the Doctor Who universe.

Guest star Dan Starkey is better known as the actor most frequently engaged to play Sontaran roles in both Sarah Jane Adventures and the new Doctor Who; he has also begun providing Sontaran voices for Big Finish Productions’ Doctor Who audio stories. Alexander Armstrong, the voice of Sarah’s sentient computer Mr. Smith, would go on to appear (in person for once!) in the 2011 Doctor Who Christmas special.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Trek Star Trek Continues Star Trek Fan Films

To Boldly Go – Part II

Star Trek ContinuesThis is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 6995.1: Lana and Sentek are nearly successful in their takeover of the Enterprise bridge, stopped only by Lt. Smith, who reveals that she also has uplift powers – long dormant since her first exposure to the barrier five years ago – activated by the ship’s proximity to the barrier. Though Lana and Sentek abandon their takeover attempt and beam back to the Kongo, Kirk is wary enough of Smith’s revelation to confine her to sick bay. Spock hallucinates an encounter with the Romulan commander, trying to tempt him to leave Starfleet and return to Romulus with her, before realizing that the uplifted espers are capable of powerful mental manipulation from afar. Among this and other distractions, the Kongo attacks the Enterprise and does critical damage. Kirk devises a plan to separate the Enterprise‘s primary hull from its stardrive section, allowing for a triple-pronged attack on the Kongo in concert with the Romulans. Sentek contacts Spock and offers to hand over the surviving crew of the Kongo; Dr. McKennah agrees to trade herself as a hostage so she can try to reason with Lana. Only after McKennah has beamed over to the Kongo are the life signs of the Kongo crew revealed to be yet another deception, giving Sentek a live hostage and leaving Kirk and Spock empty-handed. Starfleet scrambles the U.S.S. Farragut and U.S.S. Potemkin – the last two remaining Constitution-class ships other than Enterprise and the Kongo – to engage the espers before they can reach Earth, but the crews of those two ships are tricked into firing upon one another. The Romulan commander’s second-in-command, suspecting that his commander’s continued presence on the Enterprise is a sign of further Federation treachery, fires on the Enterprise at point-blank range before his commander wrests control of the ship from him via remote access codes. A last-ditch plan is set into motion: Lt. Smith is beamed into the Kongo‘s engineering deck, where she begins sabotaging the ship’s power grid. When she is detected and attacked, Smith steps up her attack to a suicide mission, overloading the Kongo’s warp core at the cost of her own life. Scotty tries to beam McKennah over as the Kongo explodes, but as the destroyed ship leaves her nowhere to return, and the Enterprise‘s own systems have suffered massive damage, her transporter signal is lost, leaving Spock wracked with guilt for allowing her to beam to the Kongo while he was in command. Considering this a failure of his ability to rely on his human half’s gut feelings, Spock vows to return to Vulcan to undergo the Kolinahr, a final ritual purge of all emotion. McCoy elects to retire from Starfleet, having witnessed more death than he cares to. Kirk, upon returning to Earth, is offered a promotion to Admiral, which he accepts, giving up the command chair for a desk job as Chief of Starfleet Operations. The Enterprise limps back to spacedock to begin undergoing refits, ending Kirk’s five-year mission.

Watch Itteleplay by Robert J. Sawyer
story by Vic Mignogna & James Kerwin and Robert J. Sawyer
directed by James Kerwin
additional music by Vic Mignogna, Craig Huxley and Andy Farber

Star Trek ContinuesCast: Vic Mignogna (Captain Kirk), Todd Haberkorn (Mr. Spock), Chuck Huber (Dr. McCoy), Chris Doohan (Mr. Scott), Nicola Bryant (Lana), Cas Anvar (Sentek), Amy Rydell (Romulan Commander), Mark Meer (Tal), April Hebert (Rear Admiral Thesp), Marina Sirtis (Computer Voice), Grant Imahara (Sulu), Kim Stinger (Uhura), Wyatt Lenhart (Chekov), Michele Specht (McKennah), Steven Dengler (Drake), Martin Bradford (Dr. M’Benga), Kipleigh Brown (Smith), Reuben Langdon (Dickerson), Cat Roberts (Palmer), Liz Wagner (Nurse Burke), Adam Dykstra (Relief Helmsman), Emie Morissette (Relief Navigator), Michael Parker (Romulan Lieutenant), Star Trek ContinuesJessie Rusu (Transporter Chief), E. Patrick Hanavan III (Esper), Ed Obarowski (Esper), John Cerabino (Enterprise Crew), Sean Davis (Enterprise Crew), Amanda Denkler (Enterprise Crew), Savannah DePew (Enterprise Crew), Ashley Despot (Enterprise Crew), Natalie George (Enterprise Crew), Scott Grainger (Enterprise Crew), Ginger Holley (Enterprise Crew), Peter Lickteig (Enterprise Crew), B.J. Savage (Enterprise Crew), Thomas E. Surprenant (Enterprise Crew), Cassandra Tuten (Enterprise Crew), Kyle Warner (Enterprise Crew)

Star Trek ContinuesNotes: This final episode of Star Trek Continues effectively provides a series finale for the original series, leaving characters and situations in much the same state we find them in at the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In addition to Motion Picture-era uniforms appearing prominently, there are even musical nods toward the first Star Trek movie in the form of musical contributions from electronic music pioneer Craig Huxley playing the Blaster Beam, the unearthly instrument heard prominently in the scores of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 4 Star Wars

Family Reunion – And Farewell

Star Wars: RebelsWith Governor Pryce captured by the Rebels, Ezra’s plan to rid Lothal of any Imperial presence permanently is now in motion: the Rebels will, using the captured Imperial transports, infiltrate the Empire’s base on Lothal, where Pryce will – at the point of a blaster – recall all Imperial forces to the base for an evacuation. When Grand Admiral Thrawn returns to Lothal ahead of schedule and begins bombarding the planet’s civilian population from orbit in response, Ezra relents and hands himself over to Thrawn, over the protests of Hera and the others. Thrawn has orders to deliver Ezra to the Emperor, but even before then, Palpatine communicates with Ezra via hologram, offering to return his parents to him, alive and well, in exchange for revealing the secret of the gateway into time and space that was accessible from the ruins of Lothal’s Jedi temple. Ezra refuses, aware that his friends have already set his backup plan into motion, buying time for some old allies to attack the Imperial fleet hovering over Lothal. But will the price of thwarting the Emperor’s plans be the loss of another of the last few remaining Jedi?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Dave Filoni, Henry Gilroy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg & Steven Melching
directed by Dave Filoni, Bosco Ng and Sergio Paez
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by David Russell, Sean Kiner, and Dean Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer / Imperial Tech / Stormtrooper #1), Dave Filoni (Chopper / Imperial Pilot / Stormtrooper #2), Keith Szarabajka (Cikatro Vizago / Imperial Officer), Dee Bradley Baker (Captain Rex / Clone Troopers / Ephraim Bridger / Melch), Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Jim Cummings (Hondo Ohnaka / Pellaeon / Imperial Commander / Stormtrooper #3), Matthew Wood (Imperial Technician #1), David Acord (Imperial Technician #2), David Oyelowo (Kallus), Gina Torres (Ketsu Onyo), Zachary Gordon (Mart Mattin), Kath Soucie (Mira Bridger), Warwick Davis (Rukh), RebelsClancy Brown (Ryder Azadi)

Notes: The episode-ending coda reveals that Hera and Captain Rex fought in the battle of Endor, and Rogue One had already revealed the Ghost‘s presence at both Yavin IV and the battle of Scarif. Some time after the liberation of Lothal, Hera has a son, Jacen Syndulla, and Sabine’s narration in the coda indicates that Jacen’s father was Kanan. Ezra’s fate is left unresolved, with the tantalizing hint that Sabine and Ahsoka Tano begin a quest to find him after the fall of the Empire, perhaps to be chronicled elsewhere.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Daleks!

Day Of Recknoning

Daleks!After the Mechanoid declaration of war, the Emperor Dalek and the Dalek Strategist race back to Skaro to revive the Dalek city, their ship so badly damaged that it can only crash rather than landing. The Mechanoids arrive soon aftward, prepared to wipe out the Dalek threat once and for all, only to find that the Emperor has already mustered an army of Daleks to defend the city. Fierce fighting ensues, during which the Dalek Strategist is surrounded by Mechanoids, including the Queen, who try to manipulate it into betraying the Emperor. But if it is willing to do that, who else will it betray?

written by James Goss
directed by Peter Caddock and Jon Doyle
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Anjli Mohindra (Mechanoid Queen), Ayesha Antoine (Mechanoid 2150), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks)

Daleks!Notes: Though the episode’s ending seems to hint at a further coming conflict with the extradimensional entity, this is the final episode of the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green